Nurtured Canine - St. Albert

I called Melissa when I was unsure what to do with my 2 yr old dog. He was much more social pre C19. She came to do an in person assessment and identified areas I hadn't noticed because we hadn't been around many people. He is a whooooole new dog and I can do things with him and take him for walks - off leash - which is something I didn't think would EVER happen. He was too stubborn and didn't listen. Even my family thinks he seems more comfortable in his own skin. She treated us both so well, and my dog is like my fur baby. I trusted her 110% with Eddie and couldn't imagine not having her help!!!! BEST INVESTMENT I'VE EVER MADE!!!

Melissa is amazing and would recommend her for any of your training needs! We couldn’t get our high energy 1.5 year old mastiff mix to stay away from the door when we had company and he would break out of his kennel when left alone. Since our training with Melissa we no longer have these problems and if we do have questions she replies quickly and gives us the confidence we are doing things correctly. You won’t regret working with Nurtured Canine

Melissa has helped us through thick and thin with our puppy. Training him was a breeze with her because she offered us real life situational support, tips and tricks, and ensured we stayed on track. She responds quickly to any requests we have and she is truly passionate about her work with our puppy. We couldn't have picked a better trainer to support us through this journey. I couldn't recommend Melissa more as a trainer both for her professionalism as well as her love of dogs. Thank you, Melissa!

I can honestly say our experience with you has been life changing. When we first met, I was hesitant because I had been training our dog since he was 4 months old, and had little to show for it. He had been labelled as aggressive and reactive by others, and many trainers couldn’t see past that. We literally must have worked with 7 trainers and still couldn’t walk our dog without him lunging and barking at every car, bike, person, dog, or child who walked by. He was hyper around our house, would jump up and try to nip our kids, and would bark whenever anyone would walk up to our house. We could not have anybody over, and he wouldn’t let us put anything over his head. After a few in person sessions, and the board and train he is a different dog. He is calm around everyone in our family, and we can go for beautiful long walks. My kids can feel confident they are not going to be jumped on, and he rarely barks without a reason. We finally have the family dog we knew he was. I was so relieved when we were able to throw out his medication. Deep down I always knew he was capable of being well behaved, I just didn’t know how to help him. Thank you for helping him learn to live with our busy family… we really feel so lucky to have found you and your team (Cassidy and Damon)… and your dog Kevin too:). You truly have an incredible training program, and I am recommending you to all my friends and family.

Melissa is a consumate professional and we're lucky to have found her. She helped us set our pup on the right track from a young age and took on the difficult task of crate training him.

About a year ago, my girlfriend and I adopted a large Pyrenees blue heeler mix named Lua. Upon bringing her home, we realized she had severe reactivity to bikes, people, runners, dogs and animals and basically anything that moved. In addition to her reactivity, she was highly anxious; leaving the apartment was a battle, and as two full-time students, we began to struggle. Going anywhere became impossible, and we started to take Lua out at odd hours to avoid anything that could set her off. We found ourselves at a dead-end, and after trying countless strategies, we decided to call Nurtured Canine. Melissa recommended the travel and train program for Lua. Melissa worked with Lua and ourselves over the next couple of months, and the results have been life-changing. Melissa is an exceptional individual who clearly cares about her clients and their customers. Melissa was extremely easy to get along with and was clear in her directions and training. In addition to her training skills, Melissa was compassionate towards our concerns and towards Lua’s anxiety and reactivity. Our questions via text were promptly answered, and she was always flexible with appointments. We used to spend our weekends locked up in our apartment, keeping Lua away from any triggers, but now we spend our weekends taking Lua to the markets, coffee shops and travelling to Tofino with her. We are incredibly grateful for Melissa and the way she worked with Lua and ourselves. Nurtured Canine is worth every penny and is the place to bring your furry friend. Thank you, Melissa and the Nurtured Canine team.

My husband and I had our dog, Boomer, for just over a year before we hired Melissa and only regret is we didn’t get in contact with her sooner! We had tried puppy training courses through pet stores, and then also had a session with a different trainer early on, and tried to go with their ‘technique’, which clearly was not working for us or our dog. First we started looking for trainers just for basic puppy training, but as boomer got bigger (he’s a great Dane mastiff mix), he started showing signs of food aggression, along with aggression towards other dogs. He was also incredibility hard to walk, constantly pulling. Thankfully we came across Nurtured Canine and started our training journey with Melissa. We worked on food aggression, basic commands, recall, and walking. Along with how to properly introduce our dog to other dogs to avoid aggressive behaviour. It was a lot of walks together, and homework to do with boomer after our sessions but couldn’t be happier with the results. Melissa was amazing with our dog (he loves seeing her) and she was great with us also as training is not just about the dog, its about training us to be responsible dog owners and learn our dogs signs for when they are feeling overwhelmed/anxious to avoid it becoming something more. We have had so many friends and family members tell us what a change they saw in Boomer every time they came over since the training. After completing our program with Melissa, Boomer has been less aggressive and walking him is easy. He walks in a heal position with us until he is released with a simple command, loose leash training was a game changer. Even though we have finished our training sessions, Melissa has been there to give us advice when situations came up and we didn’t know how to react or we were confused with how boomer reacted. There’s always going to be certain parts of training that needs improvement and more focus down the road as your dog grows and as environments change, and its so great that Melissa will always be that person that we can count on to help guide us. Training is an investment, you invest not only money but also time. You need to be willing to put in the effort and when you do, it is so worth it. We can not thank Melissa enough for all the work she put in with Boomer and us. HIGHLY RECOMMEND !

Damon and Melissa saved our life! We hired Melissa and Damon to board and train our 1 year old Goldendoodle who mad major socialization issues with new people and anxiety. We were at a point where we were either going to have give our dog away or hire somebody to SERIOUSLY HELP. Our dog would lunge, bark and growl at anybody new who would come into our house or reach towards him on a walk or at the dog park. Additionally, we had issues with him listening to commands, barking, recall, not being able to relax or settle down, pulling when walking, and chewing the leash. Although it was a very tough decision to send him away with Damon and Melissa for 6 weeks, they immediately made us feel comfortable and confident in our decision. It was the best decision we ever made! Throughout the six weeks of him being away with them, they continuously sent us videos and pictures of him so that we could see his progress and would be able to see how far along he had come. Our dog came back a changed boy. We can now have people come in and out of our house without having to worry about him lunging and viciously barking at them. Also, we can now walk our dog with him right beside us and not pulling us around or biting the leash. They have trained him to listen to all our commands and overall, he is so much calmer and more relaxed because his anxiety is being dealt with now. They have continued to provide us with support and be there for any questions we have even after the six weeks. If you are looking for dog trainers for a puppy or grown dog, we would 100% recommend Nurtured Canine. They were amazing to work with and completely changed our life. Thank you so much guys!